Jan. 3, 2013

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The Fort Collins Planning & Zoning board will hold a special hearing on the project development plan for the existing Foothills Mall from 6-10 p.m. Feb. 7 at City Council Chambers, 300 LaPorte Ave.

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Developers of Fort Collins’ aging Foothills Mall are awaiting a response on their second offer to buy out the Sears building at the mall as their redevelopment plans move forward, even without the property.

Foothills’ owner Walton Foothills Holdings VI LLC — a company created by Alberta Development Partners and affiliates of Walton Street Capital when they purchased Foothills in July — has submitted its project development plan without Sears. But the longtime retailer, one of the original tenants of the nearly 40-year-old mall, owns its building and largely controls its own destiny at the mall, unless the city takes the property by eminent domain.

Cody Wertz, spokesman for the developer, said Sears rejected the first buyout offer and has not responded to the second, although Wertz was unsure when the second offer was made.

If Sears rejects developers’ second offer, it appears increasingly likely the city would move ahead with eminent domain procedures. The Fort Collins City Council in December voted in a rule change to allow developers to move forward with the project without owning the Sears property, as council eyes a Jan. 15 decision on whether to sweep Sears out by invoking eminent domain.

Sears is only one of 120 retailers at the mall currently discussing their futures with mall developers. Nonprofit Arc Thrift Store is still awaiting its fate several weeks after Arc CEO Lloyd Lewis met with city and mall officials.

Lewis said he was promised a proposal for the store but thus far none has come, he said Wednesday.

If he doesn’t get a proposal in the next few days, Lewis said he plans to speak on the issue at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Wertz said developers are working hard to get a proposal to Lewis, but it involves other parties who have a legal interest in the direction of the property.

Despite Lewis’ desire to remain at the mall, Alberta founder and principal Don Provost has said the thrift store on the property’s north side doesn’t fit with the upscale shopping center that developers intend to create.

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That puts the thrift store in an awkward position, Lewis said. “It’s not inexpensive to move” a 25,000-square-foot store that does about 200,000 customer transactions per year. “That needs to be part of it. I don’t know if they expect the charity to pick up the costs,” he said.

There is a process in place through the city’s Urban Renewal Authority to help with relocation costs for any business displaced by redevelopment. But exactly how much might be offered is still unknown.

Walton Foothills Holdings VI submitted its project development plan to the city’s planning department on Dec. 28. Plans include lopping off 93,000 square feet of the existing enclosed mall, razing the former Mervyn’s and Sears anchor buildings, and a number of freestanding buildings on parcels around the mall. It hopes to be open in time for the 2014 Christmas holidays.

Developers say the reinvented Foothills will be a combination traditional indoor mall mixed with street-front shops, open-air restaurants and community gathering spaces with dancing fountains, a skating rink, movie theater, an outdoor fireplace on a “great lawn” and apartments.